


Endlessly

by HapSky



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Crossover, Fluff, M/M, Memory Loss, Sakura Country Arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-09 07:29:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10407000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HapSky/pseuds/HapSky
Summary: Lance and Keith arrive yet in another foreign dimension in search for the prince's lost memories, his lost feathers. It sure is not an easy journey for them, but with friends like Shiro and Matt at their side and Mokona's aid, they are not left helplessly alone. Keith may not remember him, but Lance would do anything for him nevertheless. After all, his love for his prince lasts endlessly.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [palmtreehero](https://archiveofourown.org/users/palmtreehero/gifts).



> This little AU is based on a [picture](https://twitter.com/palmtreehero/status/835164172723740672) from [@palmtreehero](https://twitter.com/palmtreehero), as well as chapter 34 and 35 of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.
> 
> I plotted like 50 different scenes, but chose this in the end, because I wanted it to not be heavy with feelings or with a confusing storyline (TRC wrecked both my mind and my heart). But I wanted to include lighter action scenes, funny scenes, and a bit of Syaoran-Sakura dynamic, so the Sakura Country arc seemed perfect with the Oni and the Café and everything.
> 
> For better understanding:  
>  _flashback ___  
> Syaoran → Lance  
>  Sakura → Keith  
> Kurogane → Shiro  
> Fay → Matt  
> Yuzuriha → Nyma  
> Inuki → Beezer  
> Kusanagi → Rolo  
> Fujitaka → Lance's unnamed father  
> … and Mokona is Mokona

Lance hears the shatter of glass and the clinking of shards raining on the floor. His gaze fixes the huge creature lurking out of the darkness. Its eyes gleam in red maliciousness, its body is made of black shadows. Shiro jumps aside in time, unconscious Keith in his arms. Matt, with little Mokona clinging to his shoulder, smiles an unimpressed grin and chuckles, “Seems we found ourselves a friend already, huh?” “I don't like this kind of friends...”, Shiro furrows his brows with troubled worry. The creature hisses a screeching scream, lashes out with its long, sharp claws. They dodge and leap away, avoiding its attacks over and over. But they still are inside the building, and their movement range is very limited, this fight has to end soon. Lance leaps high with his next dodge, he gets scratched, but also gets the chance to land a blow at the creature's head. He twirls in the air and strikes a hard kick, his opponent howls with its last breath, gray steam fumes out of it and it crashes down, defeated. “Nicely done”, Shiro praises him and Lance smiles proudly. Such a shame Keith didn't get to see it, now he can't brag about his victory at all. “Hm”, Matt pokes at the creature, his curiosity getting the better of him, “And here I thought this dimension would be a harmless one, without danger jumping right in our faces the very first day”, he muses and just then, under his examination, the creature evaporates into nothing and disappears completely. “Matt!”, Shiro scolds his friend, who just laughs, a little confused. “It's gone!”, Lance exclaims the obvious. Shiro shakes his head, “This place really doesn't seem to be harmless...” Lance nods in agreement. “Maybe we should ask that lady about it?”, he suggests. He thinks of it as weird, that she hadn't informed them about the possibility of monsters suddenly appearing and attacking when they were at the information center today. “Yup!”, Matt yawns, curls himself into his long black, worn out coat on the floor, not letting himself be disturbed by the mess around him. “How can you sleep like this? We just fought against a monster!”, Shiro's irritated voice doesn't reach Matt anymore. “That dude really naps anywhere and everywhere”, Lance snickers. He can relate, though. He had to seek slumber on hard ground and in dusty corners several times, back when he traveled far lands with his father. Perhaps Matt had traveled with his father too, Lance smiles at his friend. He doesn't know much about Matt, but he could picture him on a research trip with his scientist father easily enough. It would suit him.

Shiro stays back the next day, to watch over Keith, so it's Lance, Matt and Mokona who head to the town hall in the morning. Lance chats with the little creature, while Matt hums a tune, a light mood like fresh air surrounding them. “Hi”, Matt greets the lady at the service center. “Hello”, the lady greets back. “You were very active last night, so you will get a reward”, she smiles her signature smile at them, collected and professionally friendly. “Uh...what?”, Lance replies, not so eloquently. “You slayed an oni last night, correct?”, the lady asks. Matt squints at her, but hides his wariness behind his signature grin as well, “How comes you know about this? Our friend just vanished”, he questions her. “Of course the oni are monitored around the clock”, she answers matter-of-factly. “Is that so...”, Matt thinks loudly, already processing the new data he got. “That is so”, the lady smiles back. It seems the oni are not roaming around without any reason, they have a special function in this land. They do not appear on their own, they aren't like wild animals, reproducing and growing, they are placed in this world by someone with purpose. Matt feels like this is interesting to know, could get important at some point. “Sooo... that thing whose butt I kicked last night is called an oni, okay, cool. But what exactly _ is  _ an oni?”, Lance looks at the service lady a bit puzzled, cocking his head to the side. “In Sakura Country, a creature is referred to as an oni when it's appearance is sudden and when it exists in order to be slayed. They show up at night, rarely at midday, and their strength comes and goes with the moon. They are strongest at full moon and weakest at new moon”, she explains completely at ease. “You seem very calm, despite that such creatures are wandering this land”, Matt's suspicion grows. He can't shake the feeling of something fishy going on here. “The oni only attack citizen in an extreme emergency, there are specialists for this matter”, she tells them. Matt wonders what kind of emergency she speaks of, he can't think of an emergency for a beast whose meaning of life is death itself. “Those specialists are called oni hunter, they earn their money by slaying oni. The more powerful the oni, the higher the reward! The oni you defeated was a class C 5 one, so you seem to be suitable for working as oni hunter, maybe you want to make this your job?”, the lady moves on, not wasting time. She didn't notice Matt's distrusting glances, or perhaps she is not able to, Matt thinks to himself. “Well, in comparison to other jobs...”, he trails off, mind still occupied with the previous topic. “You could make a lot of money in a short time!”, she tries to persuade them. “What do you think?”, Matt addresses Lance, who had been watching their conversation silently. He stares at the service lady for a while, eyes serious and expression a stern one, his easygoing manner gone. “Is this job of use for collecting information?”, he wants to know. The lady may have not caught Matt's distrust, but Lance sure has. He doesn't tell her any details, she does not need to know, and he doubts she would ask. “Yes, as the other oni hunter have some background information, and as there are places only oni hunter are allowed to enter”, then she drops her smile, “It is a very dangerous job, though” Lance doesn't hesitate, “I'll do it”, his determination is clear in his voice, burning in his eyes. Danger isn't something he would shy away from. “Is registered”, the smile is back on the lady's face, “Oni hunter work in a pair of two, so which of your fellow companions do you choose as partner?”, the lady barely finishes her question, and Matt already announces the answer, impish grin on his lips, “Shiro of course!” Lance blinks at him, taken aback, “Uh... I haven't asked him yet?”, he tries to oppose, but his objection perishes under Matt's wicked laugh. But he has a point, Keith is out of question, although he would deny that. So it's either absent Shiro or not absent Matt... “And what about you?”, the lady seems to have thought the same. “Don't you have a job that requires more of... brain work? Muscle work isn't exactly my thing and is  _ no fun _ at all...”, Matt laments dramatically and flops down on the counter. “But of course!”, the lady smiles down on him. “I'll take that!”, Matt grins up to her. “You don't even know what kind of job that is!”, Lance calls out. He does not understand Matt at all sometimes, that guy really is a mystery to him. Matt only answers with a hearty laugh, the lady tells them “Is registered” again, and Lance figures he can't do anything about it. With the formalities taken care of, they return to their house.

They find Shiro in the living room, sitting on the floor next to the couch at Keith's side, softly brushing some strands of hair out of his sleeping face. “What did you find out?”, he asks as soon as they are outside, sitting on the veranda facing the garden. “Weeeell”, Matt sings, “Appears those monsters are a way to earn money”, he grins. “They're called oni and we'll be hunting them. That's actually a real job here”, Lance explains. Shiro's relaxed, friendly, his kind face shifts at Lance's words. Shiro is a nice dude, mostly chill and cool headed, an adorable dork sometimes. But he's more than the first impression implies, like all of them. His gentle smile turns dark and sinister, twisted with bloodlust, a feral grimace a merciless predator wears. “Oni hunter, eh?”, he sounds content with the outlook of that job. “Fine with me”, then his expression takes a full turn again, he looks at Lance, worry overshadowing his features. “You sure you want to do this? I mean, no idea what those oni are capable of, but... You're half blind, so...”, Shiro speaks with concern. When Lance doesn't respond, he sighs. “I observed your fighting style. You have a strong mind, everlasting willpower. Your intuition and your instincts are sharp, but only when you're being attacked from the right, cause you rely on your eyesight from the left. But the oni last night was hard to sense, so you got scratched on your right arm... It might not be just a scratch next time”, he says and stares at Lance, who stares back. Only a few can stand their ground against Shiro's piercing gaze, but Lance certainly is one of them. His resolve is written all over his face. Just as Shiro had said, strong mind and everlasting willpower. Lance will do whatever it takes to get Keith's feathers back. “I'll do my best to be of help, Shiro. I won't get in your way, I promise. Please”, he pleads. Shiro thinks about it and Lance keeps his gaze steady, unwavering. “He'll be fine”, Matt supports Lance and pats Shiro's shoulder, then goes back inside. As if he would not care, or as if he would have faith. Lance likes to see the good, so faith it is. “Okay”, Shiro caves in, “But also promise to be careful”, he demands and Lance thanks him with a goofy grin. Just like Shiro, just like Matt, Lance keeps some of the truth about himself hidden. Behind that goofy grin lies an old, dear memory.

“ _ It's been a while, huh?”, his father smiles warmly at their little home. Almost the same as they had left it, different by just a small layer of dust that has settled down over the time they were at the ruins. Two months has it been, two months caged in a sandstorm. They had brought back many artifacts to work on. “You doing okay with your hand? Let me carry those”, his father takes the boxes off Lance's hands. “Sorry...”, Lance apologizes. “It's okay, I know it's hard to reckon the distance with only one eye, but... just be careful with fire next time”, his father has worry clouding his eyes as he speaks. Lance apologizes again, and though his father smiles at him, a little hint of pain twists itself into his kind gaze. Lance is just about apologizing again, when rapid knocks on the door announce a guest. “I've heard you'd be back...”, Keith exclaims breathlessly. Seems like he was running from the castle to see them and welcome them back home. “Yes, just arrived, my prince”, Lance's father laughs at his son's friend. “Would you like some tea?”, he asks and when Keith nods, he heads for the kitchen. “Hi Keith”, Lance smiles shyly at the young prince. Keith doesn't smile back, he scowls at Lance's bandaged hand. “You idiot”, he mutters, taking the hand in his own, “You hurt yourself again” Lance looks down on their fingers, Keith's oh so carefully examining his burned ones. “Couldn't see the flame properly, I'm sorry...”, Lance whispers, his eyes sad when he is met with a worried glance. “You sure are stupid”, Keith tells him, but adds more quietly, small voice heavy with affection, “Wouldn't happen when you're with me, I'd watch out for you” At that, Lance feels a hearty grin spreading over his lips, “Bet you would”, he chuckles. He still doesn't feel much, but when he is with the prince, all he ever feels is happiness. “But you're still stupid!”, Keith explains, “Don't say 'I'm sorry', just say 'Thanks', okay?”, he lectures him. And when Lance's father returns with the tea and asks Lance to be careful, he does listen to Keith's advice and mumbles a timid “Thanks, dad” _

He will never forget the hug his father gave him back then, tender, warm, just as thankful for having a son like Lance as Lance was for having a father like him. He will never forget the wide smile he saw Keith giving them. Keith had taught him many things, and even if he would never remember, Lance will treasure all their shared memories in his heart.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me tell you, following a given script (a manga script at that!) while only changing the characters - their appearance and behavior and way of speaking, their _character_ \- while not changing the plot, that ain't easy. After all, Lance should act like Lance, and not like Syaoran in disguise, but he still needs to lead the story to certain plot points. Especially turning Sakura into Keith felt like a challenge and I really think writing this honed my characterization skills. And Manga storytelling is way more different from textual storytelling than I previously thought… But I had fun ^^
> 
> For better understanding:  
>  _flashback_  
>  Syaoran → Lance  
> Sakura → Keith  
> Kurogane → Shiro  
> Fay → Matt  
> Yuzuriha → Nyma  
> Inuki → Beezer  
> Kusanagi → Rolo  
> Fujitaka → Lance's unnamed father  
> … and Mokona is Mokona

“Smells like tea…”, Keith mumbles, eyes still closed. He listens to his surroundings a little longer. Cups make clatter sounds in the distance, water is poured, fabric rustles. He peeks out from under the blanket and sees Lance with a tablecloth in his hands. Matt brews tea and Shiro stands on a ladder to hang up some curtains. “Morning, my sleeping beauty!”, Lance beams at him as soon as he notices Keith finally woke up. “Shut up”, Keith grumbles. “We bought some stuff from the money we got for slaying that oni”, Matt explains. But it doesn’t really explain anything for Keith at all. What’s an oni? Did he miss something? “A new window, food, clothes that are characteristic for this country”, Matt goes on and he is right. He is wearing a waiter’s suit, Lance is neatly dressed too and Shiro wears… something new too. Keith definitely missed something. “Uh… what?”, he states with a yawn. “Only Shiro’s were a bit tricky to put on, but he just knew how to do it correctly”, Matt smiles at Shiro, who answers while finishing the last curtain. “Those are normal hakama, though, nothing special. We wore similar clothes in my country”, he halts for a second and eyes Matt, “What about your outfit?” “Oh”, Matt laughs, “Should be fitting for the job, I’m going to open up a café here” A café. Keith decides to not question it, things happen when he blacks out. He’ll just accept the new situation and everything should be fine somehow. “That way, we can get some information from our guests, and we thought you could help too?”, Matt ruffles Keith’s hair. So far, the others had to look after him, had to protect him and to take care of him, with him being helpless on his own and useless to them. If there is a chance he can be of help, Keith will gladly do whatever is asked of him. It’s the least he can do. “Sure”, he nods and stands up, but Matt smirks at him and pushes a bag in his hands. “Time to suit up then!”, he grins and shoves Keith out the door. At first, Keith is confused, but once again, chooses to ignore his irritation. Then Keith is upset, he gets the feeling those clothes are not supposed to be worn by a boy. With a not so happy looking face he stomps back into the café. He says nothing. he just glares. Glares at Matt who grins back, “Every café needs a cute maid after all, right?” Keith’s glare intensifies, “That’s stupid, it only looks weird”, he hisses. But then, Lance steps in front of him, a small shy smile gracing his lips. He takes a good look at Keith’s outfit, similar to Shiro’s hakama, only in light colours and tailored into a dress, with an apron framing Keith like a flower over it. Black thigh high boots. A simple but cute white hair circlet. “Not weird at all”, he tells Keith with a low voice, proudness and affection resonating in his words. “Are you working here too?”, Keith asks. He felt uncomfortable wearing this set of clothes before, but with Lance approving, he feels perfectly fine. He’ll be a maid, if Lance likes him to. “No, Shiro and I picked a different kind of job”, Lance laughs apologetically. A different kind of job, huh. Of course, they won’t be able to find his feather through running a café alone, there must be a more efficient way for that. And of course Lance would take it upon himself to do such a job. He wouldn’t let Keith, his prince, get into danger. “Okay”, Keith nods. He understands, he would be a burden after all, no use in denying it. “Then, be careful. So you won’t get hurt”, he looks Lance straight into his eyes, tries to convey how serious he is about it. If he can’t go with Lance to protect him from danger, because Lance is just doing exactly that for him, then at least he wants him to not be reckless. He cares for Lance so, so much. “Okay?”, he asks of him. Lance seems surprised at first, looks at him like Keith had said something unexpected, but then he finger guns at him and winks, “Sure thing”, he sings and Keith is back to being annoyed again. 

“The oni mostly show up during the night”, Lance explains, “And according to the information I got from the lady from the townhall, they are said to show up frequently in the back alleys of this area” Their shadows stretch long, the light of the street lamp flickers. Lance isn’t frightened. Sure, the atmosphere is rather eerily, but the atmosphere also goes completely unnoticed by Lance. He has a job to do. A job that helps him finding Keith’s feathers. That’s all he needs to concentrate on when the oni arise from out of their dark shadows. “Heh, and here there are the first ones”, Shiro grins in anticipation to strike them down. Lance dashes forward, and throws a half circle kick at them while twirling around. The sinister creatures fizzle and sizzle with pain and crawl back into the black shades they came from, like a wounded beast retreating with wrath and ire. Shiro watches Lance fighting with stern eyes, “You are using this kind of kicking technique because of your eye?”, he assumes and Lance proves him right. “Yeah”, he says while jumping and hitting another oni with a deadly kick, “I’m no good when it comes to distances, especially with my hands”, small bits of shredded shadows are blown away and obscure drops of evil splatter down like heavy ink, as Lance continues to defeat their enemies. “But when something is further afar from me I usually don’t get the distances wrong” “An own technique…?”, Shiro wonders. Lance looks over his shoulder and laughs, “Nah, as if! Someone taught me when I was a kid…” It seems effortless, the way Lance flies through their opponents and brings down the oni one by one, while chatting with Shiro, but it is not. Lance sees the oni behind Shiro, ready to attack, and wants to shout a warning but before he gets the chance to do so Shiro swirls around, his right hand glowing in an artificial lilac. He wears a demonic grin, bloodlust in his eyes, like he knows about them, the shadows behind his back, hoping to sneak up on him. One strike, it takes only one strike for Shiro to utterly smash the monsters. Shiro smirks at their pained screech as they disappear. “Hey!”, yells a demanding voice out of nowhere, “That was our prey!” The indignant lady jumps down from the top of a near building, throws her long blonde hair over her shoulder and examines them judgingly. The man accompanying her looks less upset about them getting to the oni first, and puts down the little robot he had carried. “Nicely done though”, he smiles at them, “I’m Rolo, this is Nyma and this fellow here is Beezer”, he taps the head of the robot and it answers with a few wheezing noises. “We’re hunters as well. Don’t be too offended by Nyma’s bad mood”, he laughs and Nyma sighs. She seems a bit stressed, but then something comes to her mind and she smiles. Lance doesn’t know if it’s a good smile, or not. “Oh! You must be the two newly registered hunters?”, she asks, but is only met by puzzled faces.

“What the heck Matt!”, Lance comes crashing into the café, “Why did you- what kinda names even are ‘Big Doggy’ and ‘Little Doggy’?” Shiro trots faintly blushing into the café behind him, but Matt laughs, fetches a paper and starts drawing something on it. “Well, I don’t know this dimensions writing system, and the lady said I could fill in anything, so I’ve drawn us”, he speaks and holds up the paper. “This one”, he points to the little dog sketch, “is Lance and this”, he points to the bigger dog sketch, “is Shiro” Then draws again and holds up the second paper. “And this is Keith, the ‘Little Kitty’”, it’s a sketch of a little grumpy cat, “And me, the ‘Big Kitty’”, a bigger cat. Matt seems proud of the solution he had found and proud of the drawings he had handed in as their names. “Matt”, Keith states with a forced neutral tone, “Are you serious”, but before he can angrily yell at Matt, who already is scolded by one of Shiro’s exhausted sighs, Lance blinks at Keith and immediately starts laughing wholeheartedly. Keith is about to direct his anger at Lance now, but before the hurting words can slip out, he halts and gulps them back down. It feels familiar, watching Lance laugh. It feels warm in his chest, like something he worked hard for to achieve, and finally is rewarded with the most wonderful present he could imagine. It makes him smile too. Besides, it’s just  a stupid nickname, isn’t it. He can let Lance have that, right?

Late at night, Keith knocks at Lance’s door and as he hears a muffled “Yes?” he steps in. The thoughtful look in Lance’s eyes turns into a mocking one, “What’s it Little Kitty?”, he asks with a lopsided grin. But Keith didn’t came to banter and bicker. He carefully puts down the tray he brought on the bed next to Lance, in between opened books and some scattered notes. Lance is researching, again. Reading books over books, all of those he can read, and learns the language of those he can’t read yet. “Matt taught me how to make hot chocolate”, Keith murmurs and sits down on the bed too. He doesn’t understand much of what Lance does. He used to not understand it. He is afraid though, that he should know just very well, how reasonable Lance acts. “I’m sorry”, he whispers, sad gaze falling to the floor, he closes his eyes so the tears won’t fall too. “When I opened my eyes back then, I didn’t know anything. And when you told me you’d search for my lost memories with me, I asked myself why. Why would a stranger like you make every effort for me”, Keith remembers, the day he woke up. The nothingness in his being, he didn’t even feel confused, he just felt nothing at all. He remembers, that Lance did not feel nothing, when he had asked for his name. He remembers the hurt expression, like Keith had, with just a single question, a couple of words, entirely destroyed something within Lance. He remembers the silent agony in Lance’s eyes as well as the sad acceptance. “But you are not, right?”, Keith’s voice turns desperate, “You are no stranger to me”, he takes in a deep breath, “After all, you’ve been through a lot of danger for my sake, you’ve gotten hurt and like now you stay up until late at night to try and find something…”, Keith glances at all the books, glances at Lance’s arm, where he knows the bandages are hidden and hiding a wound. “I wanted to apologize for that”, Keith says and Lance wants to console him, to tell him it’s okay, but Keith stops him with a sudden outburst. “When did the both of met for the first time?”, Keith looks up, forlornness tainting his features, “Because I feel like we’re actually good friends, like I’ve been with you for a very long-” Keith stops abruptly, a white flash shoots through his consciousness. It is like for a short moment, the nothingness he woke up with returns and takes everything with it as it goes. “Keith!”, Lance screams horrified as Keith collapses into his lap. “What have we... been talking about…”, Keith mumbles a bit dazed, “Right… I wanted to apologize…”

“What was that?”, Shiro asks quietly. Matt glances at their two younger companions, cautiously, so they won’t get caught eavesdropping. “I think”, he answers just as quietly, “It proofs that the witch’s price is binding” Even if someone tells Keith about his relationship with Lance, the memories get erased immediately. Even if he remembers himself, the memories get erased immediately. Matt leans back against the wall, staring at the ceiling. “I think Lance knew what he signed up for. He knew, even if he brings back the feathers, one memory after another, the price he had paid will not change” Shiro sighs at that, he wishes those kids wouldn’t have it as hard as they do have, “So he never told Keith about it. But still is doing his very best”, Shiro admires Lance’s spirit, and silently decides to protect and support those two as best as he can.

“One day”, Keith mutters half asleep, “One day, when I got all my feathers back… I’ll remember you, for sure”, hope and trust resonate in his words. Lance runs his fingers through Keith’s hair. The love for his prince and the pain of his loss, they combine into a unbreakable determination. “And I’ll find all your memories”, he whispers his promise, “Even if I’m not part of them”, Keith doesn’t hear it, but he doesn’t have to, Lance decides. It doesn’t change anything. Nothing, whatever there may come for them, will change what he made his sole reason to go on. Lance will return his prince’s feathers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have any questions/annotations please feel free to comment here or message me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/HapSkyScribbles)  
> Also feel free to follow/unfollow ^^
> 
> Thanks for reading and thanks for all the nice comments and kudos :D


End file.
